changes

Every January a new edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations arrives. As usual, we will take a look at the most relevant changes and additions made to the basic regulation for the transportation of dangerous goods by air, which come into effect on January 1st, 2017.

The 57th edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) will incorporate the new amendments made by the Dangerous Goods Board. These changes will come into effect as of January 1st 2016. Some of the changes have already been discussed and approved at the IATA Dangerous Goods Board's meetings and are therefore expected to appear on the 57th edition of the DGR; this article will guide you through them.

On January 1st, 2016 a new edition of the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations will come into effect. Some of the most significant changes were discussed in a previous blog entry. This article will pick up where we left off and showcase more of the differences between the 57th edition and previous versions (including some transitional provisions that will come to an end with the arrival of the New Year).

Users of IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations have received a nice surprise in this 55th edition. As it is explained in page xxiv, IATA has decided to include a new Appendix H that provides the detail of the changes that will come into effect as of 1 January 2015 based on the adoption of the changes arising from the 18threvised edition of the UN Model Regulations as well as the changes that have been agreed to date by the ICAO Dangerous GoodsPanel for inclusion into the 2015 – 2016 Technical Instructions.

These changes include (verbatim from the IATA DGR):

Addition of new provisions for adsorbed gases, including new UN entries and packing instruction;

Addition of new provisions for Uranium hexafluoride in excepted packages including assignment into Class 8 and packing instruction;

Anumber of new and modified special provisions;

Clarification on the minimum dimensions and format of dangerous goods marks and labels;

A number of modifications to Section 10 to align to the new provisions in the IAEARegulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, 2012 edition (SSR-6).

It is clear that the availability of this information will facilitate the adaptation to the new rules for all air transport industry participants. It seems that we will all have time enough to adapt our procedures to comply with IATA DGR 2015. No excuses!

On January 1st 2015, a new edition of IATA's Dangerous Goods Regulations came into effect. Additionally, on January 8th its first addendum was posted. This article will highlight the most significant changes that have been included in the DGR.

The ADR (European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road), which constitutes the legal reference in this matter in 48 countries, has been updated in 2015. Since January 1st, this new incarnation is applied in conjunction with the previous version (ADR 2013), but on July 1st 2015 ADR 2015 will become the single valid one. This article will highlight the most significant changes introduced in latest update of the ADR.

The Amendment 37-14 to the International Maritime Organization's IMDG Code, which regulates the transportation of dangerous goods by sea, is voluntary to apply since January 1st 2015, and will become mandatory on January 1st 2016. Some of its changes are shared with other modes of transportation, while others are specific to sea transport. This article will highlight the most significant changes introduced in the Amendment 37-14.

As technology advances and new types of dangerous goods are shipped, the measures that must be taken to prevent risks evolve, and so do the regulations. That is why, for example, the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) are updated every year.

However, sometimes some measures cannot wait until next January to be applied. This is the case of the recent restrictions approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on certain lithium batteries shipments. The risks of lithium batteries catching fire during transport cannot be ignored and several provisions have been modified to exercise a greater degree of caution. New addenda have been published in order to add these changes, which come into effect on April 1st 2016, to the ICAO's Technical Instructions and the IATA DGR.